AustLit

Kent Hughes, soldier and politician, was educated at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School. In 1914 he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces, serving in Gallipoli, the Sinai, Palestine and Syria. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1917 and his first book, Modern Crusaders (1918) described the exploits of the Light Horse Brigade.

In 1919 he entered Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, gaining a BA in 1922. He represented Australia in athletics at the 1920 Olympic Games. Returning to Australia in 1923 to work for his father's publishing business, he stood for the Legislative Assembly and became the member for Kew.

Kent Hughes was seconded to the Australian Infantry Force in1940, taken prisoner during the fall of Singapore in 1942 and was sent to POW camps in Changi, Formosa (Taiwan) and Manchuria between 1942-1945. His long poem Slaves of the Samurai (1946) was written while he was in captivity.

Kent Hughes continued to serve as a member of the Victorian State Parliament 1927-1949 and was then a member of Federal Parliament, serving in various portfolios between 1949 and 1970. From 1951-1958 he was also Chairman of the Olympic Games Organising Committee.